Page 86 of Wicked Little Darling

Fuck.

WINTER BREAK

16

I’LL BEHAVE IF YOU DO. MAYBE. WE’LL SEE. PROBABLY NOT, IF I’M BEING HONEST - AND I’M ALWAYS HONEST WITH YOU

DAKOTA

All week long, Reese hissed and snapped at me like a feral kitten, and I honestly couldn’t remember a time when I’d been happier.

Winter break wasn’t officially starting until next week, but most classes had already ended and the majority of the students had already gone home.

It would be really nice if we ended up being the only two people left on campus. There’d be so many things I could do with him. Everywhere.

Though he’d deny it until he was blue in the face, he’d let his guard down around me. Just a little. Just enough that I was able to get a toe in the door, and the feeling of being the one he’d cracked it for made my whole chest swell with this weird pride and a delirious joy that was incredibly obvious. He kept telling me to stop smiling and laughing, and I’d never been accused of doing those things too much and I’d never been happier to be told to stop.

I’d never stop.

But he was getting more restless by the day. He was almost all better, it had been a fairly quick illness, but I still fussed over him.

He was a terrible patient.

Cranky and mean and I loved it.

“Can you put a shirt on? Why are you always half naked?” He snapped.

I smothered my laugh and shrugged. “It’s hot in here.”

“Then get a fucking fan or something! I don’t want to look at your nipples all the time!”

“Why, are they weird?”

I looked down at my chest, assessing my nipples. They looked normal to me.

“I just don’t want to look at them,” he grumbled, glaring at me like a pissy little cat.

But I knew that underneath all that standoffishness, he was desperate to be loved. Accepted. Touched. Validated. Praised.

He acted like he hated me waiting on him hand and foot, but his damn blushes gave him away every single time.

I’d let him keep pretending. For now.

“Fine,” I said, moving to my dresser and pulling out a shirt and some sweats. “I needed to change anyway.”

He muttered “thank god” under his breath while I unbuckled my belt, unzipped my pants, slid them down my legs, and stepped out of them.

“Are you serious right now Dakota?!” Reese’s voice went high as he screeched at me, and I couldn’t stop laughing.

I was very, very serious.

“What’s wrong?” I asked innocently.

I tugged my shirt on and stepped into my sweats, bending more than I needed to, dragging them slowly up my legs, letting the waist rest under my butt cheeks for a long moment, then yanking them the rest of the way up.

I’d pull out all the stops. I’d do whatever it took to get him to lower those walls for me. I was shameless and desperate and high on Reese’s attention.

Something soft hit my back, and I turned to find Reese so red he looked like he was about to explode. I bent down and picked up the pillow he’d thrown at me, then calmly walked to this wickedly flustered crankpot.